Final thoughts on Zimbabwe in Australia

It was the old feeling so familiar to Zimbabwe cricket followers, the sickening feeling of seeing the team they support crumple under pressure and steadily drag defeat, kicking and screaming, out of the jaws of victory. Spirited performances against Australia had given Zimbabwe the chance to claw their way back to the Carlton and United finals; superb bowling and fielding gave them the advantage in the crucial match against West Indies, only for the batsmen, with a couple of exceptions, to shrivel up when they found the pressure on themselves again.

So, needing only 179 to win, Zimbabwe totalled a mere 134 and booked themselves an early passage home. Most Zimbabwe players, it seems, will deny to their dying day the accusation that they `choke' under pressure. Former coach Dave Houghton opened up a permanent rift between himself and the team by daring to speak the truth. But the facts speak for themselves. When the going gets tough, Andy Flower, Heath Streak and sometimes one or two others get going. The rest of the team, sadly, you can forget about. I could compile a list of humiliations suffered over the years by Zimbabwe teams who had victory within their grasp and then threw it away, but I will refrain from resurrecting painful memories. And the players themselves know it is true, but there are too few of them able, as the Australians say, to `put their hands up' and take responsibility for the situation.

The gap between Andy Flower and Heath Streak on the one hand, and most of the rest, continues to widen. These two have by their incredibly hard work, determination and sheer professionalism made themselves into world-class cricketers. In both skill and temperament, they are simply the best and would be an asset to any Test team in the world, even the Australians. Most of the others, many of them very experienced players by now, have scarcely moved on from the day they made their debuts, so it seems. In fact, some of them seem to have gone backwards. They will undoubtedly be bitterly disappointed with themselves for their failures, especially under pressure, but they need to look in the mirror, admit to themselves that they are not performing to potential, that they tend to choke under pressure, and work from there.

The batsmen did have to face some superb pace bowling at the start of their innings from Nixon McLean and Cameron Cuffy, perhaps fired up by the controversial run-out of Sherwin Campbell at the start of the match, an incident which is discussed in the editorial. But we know, and they know, that they have the ability to withstand bowling of that quality, especially when Zimbabwe were facing a comparatively small target and there was no great pressure to keep the score moving. Guy Whittall did a superb job, but then just as he had weathered the storm and the second-string bowlers had come on, he was sawn off by Umpire Blunder with a bad lbw decision.

Dirk Viljoen and Heath Streak then stood firm for a while, but once Viljoen was out Streak had to do most of it himself. The last three are all capable batsmen but showed a disappointing lack of temperament by throwing their wickets away quite unnecessarily when they could and should have just played safely and allowed Streak to do the job. He must feel badly let down by most of his players with the bat.

It was all so sad when Zimbabwe were so superb with their bowling and fielding, perhaps their best performance in those departments together of the tournament. But they still cannot get all three departments right at the same time, and once again many of the team, whether they like the description or not, choked. Like alcoholics, they have to own up to it, admit "I am a choker" and then find some way to cure the problem. Sportsmen like to call it mental toughness, and that's just what they need to develop for such situations. Andy Flower and Heath Streak both have it; some of the others show it at times; but the team as a whole is still lacking in this department.

This may sound negative but, unless somebody like a sports psychologist is called in, the players have to find the answer within themselves - and they have the ability to do so. Confident, positive thinking is, we must admit, not a national strength or characteristic, but individuals have to control their own thinking, convincing themselves that they can handle tough situations. It is all about mental strength. The players will admit they need mental toughness to survive at the top level, and this is the most important area they need to work on now. Andy Flower and Heath Streak are living evidence that Zimbabweans really can compete even with the Australians in this regard.

That one-run margin was a tragedy for cricket in Zimbabwe. Had Zimbabwe managed to scrape home, it would have done their confidence a world of good. They would have realized then that they do have it in them, occasionally, to beat even the great Australian team, and they might well have gone on to greater things. They desperately needed the self-belief that would have come from such a victory, and so much was lost by that narrow margin.

Having said that, it must be admitted that Zimbabwe did not play this match under great pressure. They knew they were doomed to an early flight home whatever happened. I feel that they actually played much better against the Australians than against the West Indians during the tournament as a whole, the reason being that they felt less pressure. I suspect that the subconscious feeling was that they would lose against Australia whatever they did, but against West Indies they had to win. The extra pressure against West Indies caused the dismal batting failures that cost them a place in the finals and a large dose of desperately needed foreign currency for Zimbabwe cricket.

Even though there was less pressure against Australia, especially in this final `dead' match, there was still pressure, and it was great to see many of our batsmen handle it so well. We had the superb innings of Stuart Carlisle and Grant Flower, and finally Doug Marillier's magnificent effort in the final over when 14 were needed to win off the bowling of Glenn McGrath, as near impossible a task as you will find. This time they did not choke, but I wonder if they might have won with different tactics in two areas.

Firstly, I felt even at the time that Carlisle and Flower left their final charge towards victory too late. At one stage, with about eight overs to go, they needed almost ten runs an over to win, the rate having grown slowly but steadily from about seven an over. If they both stayed right to the end, they would probably have made it, but if their partnership was broken I was afraid it was too much for the later batsmen to make up - and so it proved.

It appeared that a message transmitted to the batsmen after the 42nd over livened them up a lot, but it would have been better earlier. Perhaps the subconscious thinking had been, "We cannot win but we can make a very respectable total," and by the time the realization came that victory might just be possible, it was too late. Of course, had they got out in a victory charge earlier, there would have been a problem, but at least there would have been more breathing space for Heath Streak and the later batsmen to make it up. This risk must be taken at times if victory is to be possible. As it was, when there were 14 needed off McGrath's final over, only some brilliant improvisation by Marillier made it close.

I also wondered why on earth Gus Mackay was not promoted in the order for this situation. He is not as good a batsman as Streak, but he is still a useful all-rounder and not even Streak can match his powerful hitting. Mackay has not yet had an innings in international cricket and it would have been a tall order for him, but even one mighty blow in the middle of the bat could have swung the match at a critical stage. Marillier obviously proved himself the right man for this last-ditch situation, but Viljoen is not a big hitter. Big hitting was needed - so why not send in Mackay? There seemed nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It must be admitted that Australia were not at their best in the field in this match, which helped Zimbabwe's cause. But at the vital stage on the match, they just managed to turn the game with two superb catches and must have been very relieved to scrape home. At least Zimbabwe will have gained a new respect in that quarter.

It was good to see that, when Andy Flower and Heath Streak `failed', by their usual high standards, other players were able to make major contributions. We always knew that Grant Flower can handle the pressure, but he had often failed on tour through lack of form and confidence. Now he played superbly, just as he had done in that incredible partnership with Murray Goodwin that enabled Zimbabwe to beat West Indies at Chester-le-Street in England last year. His partner this time was Stuart Carlisle, whose attitude has been so widely praised by those close to the team. Carlisle, on this extended tour of four countries, took a while to find his form, and then suffered from the problem of making good starts but failing to build on them. Now he pushed through to score his second one-day century, against one of the strongest of bowling attacks and at a vital time. Hopefully he will now have broken through the confidence barrier and will be a leading run-scorer in his own right at last.

Despite the reduction of pressure, it was a magnificent effort by Zimbabwe to come so close to taking this match. One has to live with the regret that so much good was missed because we just failed to clinch it. Zimbabwe has never come so close to beating Australia since the very first match in the 1983 World Cup, although Australia did win by some fairly narrow margins in some of the subsequent matches. But recently the margins have generally been very conclusive - until now. At least our players now know they can get close to Australia again. How long will it be before they can prove to themselves that they can actually win, as they so nearly did in Perth?